Satin Creditcare to raise Rs 35 crore from finance firm Capital First

Satin Creditcare has announced that it is going to raise about Rs 35 crore ($5.5 million) from non-banking financial company Capital First Ltd. In a filing with the stock exchange, the company has revealed that it will allot 1.23 million optionally convertible redeemable preference shares at Rs 284.53 apiece to Capital First.

The company, which claims to be the third-largest microlender in the country in terms of gross loan portfolio, was founded in 1990 as a non-banking financial company (NBFC) to provide individual loans to urban shopkeepers.

Since then, it has evolved to become a microfinance firm with significant presence in North India. It had first raised private investment from Lok Capital and Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar in 2008. In 2013, it raised another funding round, giving a complete exit to Lok Capital, marking the first complete exit of this scale in the Indian micro finance sector.

Currently, the firm is backed by C Cube Angels, MicroVest Capital Management LLC, NMI Frontier Fund and The SBI FMO Fund, among others. It caters to the low-income group and offers micro, MSME and small-ticket loans against property as well as product financing and business correspondent services through Taraashna Services. The company’s gross loan portfolio stood at Rs 4,067 crore as of 31 March 2017.

Capital First was founded in 2010 by V. Vaidyanathan, and is one of the leading Financial Institution in India focused on providing debt financing to MSMEs and Indian consumers.

Warburg Pincus, one of the world’s largest private equity firm, had acquired a 42.73% stake in Capital First from Pantaloon Retail in 2012 and subsequently bought an additional 24.43% in the company through an open offer in October that year.